


The Urge To Save

by KazOfScotland



Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [16]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Knight In Shining Armour Moment, Love at First Sight, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Avengers (2012), Referenced Self-Hatred, Self-Esteem Issues, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:41:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: From their very first meeting Clint had wanted nothing more than to protect her. Hermione wanted nothing more than to see him smile. From their first meeting to their second, and to an evening following the Battle of New York. This is little snapshots of how they chase after one and other.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Hermione Granger
Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111565
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24
Collections: 30 Days of Winter Writing, Marvelously Magical Bingo 2021





	The Urge To Save

**Author's Note:**

> This has been written for two challenges:  
> The First being Marvelously Magical Fanfiction Bingo 2021 and the Bingo Square I3 on my card - Clint Barton & Hermione Granger  
> The second challenge was Keep Calm and Write Something 30 Days of Winter Writing prompt Trapped Under Ice.

Clint was always aware of his surroundings, it was something that he had to be. It was essentially stuck in his DNA by now. He had been running around as both a spy and an assassin since his teenage years. And before that, before that he was trapped in a life of abuse, where if he let his guard down, if he stopped paying attention to everything that went on around him, then the consequences would be unimaginable. But that was why he was so surprised. 

He had been sitting on a roof overlooking an alleyway where he had been informed that his target would appear. He had been up there for over twenty-four hours when it happened. It had been long enough that he was fairly certain at first that he was hallucinating. He had to be. There was no other option for it, because there was no way that a woman around about his age had just appeared in an alley out of fresh air. It was impossible. 

He kept watching the woman, there was something mesmerising about her. It was the first time that he had ever allowed his attention to drift from his target to anything else. The girl had this smile that just drew him in, but there was something haunted in her eyes, something that made him want to protect her, made him want to make everything better for her. 

He watched as she pushed her hair back from her face, and he knew then that this was what people meant by love at first sight. He knew that he wanted to meet her, he wanted to talk to her, even just once. But then it all went wrong. 

Just as the woman went to walk away, his target stepped out of the doorway that she was standing in front of. He couldn’t hear what was being said, and he couldn’t read the lips of either his target or the mesmerising woman, but there was some sort of heated exchange before the target grabbed her. And in that moment, he felt his heart race in panic, which was something that he had never experienced before. 

It was the first time ever that he had had to rely on every part of his training, on everything that he had learnt since he was a teenager. The way to slow his heart and his breathing, the way he could focus on the smallest point on a target and imagine where his bullet would enter and exit, and then pull the trigger. 

And that was exactly what he did. He breathed in, released and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew through the air and straight into his target, settling nicely between the target’s eyes. He watched as the target fell back against the alley wall, pulling the woman with him. She looked terrified, stuck and unable to escape from the grasp of the now dead man. He knew that the operation orders were to take out the target and then leave. The orders were simple. In. Out. Don’t be seen. 

He knew that he should leave, but he couldn’t. He couldn't leave her like that, panicking and trying to escape when he didn’t know how long it would be until the body was found or S.H.I.E.L.D decided that it would be better to clear up after him. So he did something he had never done before. He tidied away his gun, policed his brass, and then dropped from the roof onto a window ledge, and then finally to the ground. 

He froze for a moment before he pushed himself up to his feet. He watched the woman carefully, there was a strange beauty to her. Something he had never noticed in a person before, he had been too institutionalised to the role of spy and assassin that he had only ever viewed people as being a target. His target. But he couldn’t view her as a target or a civilian. She was something special. 

His approach was slow, her eyes were fixed to him, and he could see the fear growing. The way her breathing was shallow and her heart was racing. If she was a target, she would be perfect, nice and clear to find. But she wasn’t. She was innocent. He placed his gun case on the ground at the side of the alley. 

“I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. I will not hurt you,” he kept repeating the same sentence to her as he approached her. His hands were held out in front of him in the universal sign for peace and surrender. He didn’t want to hurt her or cause her any more fear than she already had experienced. All he wanted was to make sure that she was okay. “My name is Clint, I promise I am not going to hurt you. I’m just going to get him off of you,” his accent cut through the quiet of the London alleyway, but he knew that he had to keep talking. She was watching him, her expression still full of terror. 

He stopped about a foot away from her, he was close enough that if she wanted to she would be able to kick out at him and make contact, but he was hoping that she would be more inclined to let him help rather than kick out. However, he knew that if he wanted her to allow his help, and to hopefully share some information about herself, then he would need to give her something more than promises that could potentially be empty. 

“I’m going to pull him off of you, okay? I need you to stay quiet whilst I do so,” Clint explained as he crouched down next to her. He stretched his arm out slowly until he managed to grab a hold of the arm of the target. He had wondered why she hadn’t managed to move, but as soon as his hand touched the target’s arm, he realised what the problem was. 

The target had been prepared, cautious to an extent, and had been wearing a bulletproof vest. So when he had grabbed her, he had wrapped his arm around her neck and grabbed onto the strap on his vest. He had wanted to make sure that she couldn’t fight and escape. 

But Clint had had enough training that he knew how to solve the issue. He knew that it would be easy enough to get the woman free, but he also knew that she was going to run and hide when she did. 

“I’m going to get him off of you, but I need you to stay calm, okay, sweetheart,” he replied as he started to pull the target’s arm from against her throat with one hadn whilst with the other he started to unlock the man’s fingers from the strap on his vest. He could see how she was trying to stay as calm as possible as he did so. 

Thankfully he made quick work of it. He got it over with as soon as he could, but it was strange for him, he wanted to ask who she was but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything other than repeat his assurances. 

“Hermione, not sweetheart.” That was the only words that she said once he had managed to release her. As soon as she was free she was scrambling to her feet, she never really looked at him, all she did was tell him her name, and then she was off and running. 

All he could hope was that someday he would get a chance to speak to her again. Well maybe not again, but that he would get a chance to have some form of a conversation with her. Because in that moment as he thought over the whole interaction, he realised that he wanted nothing more than to feel the fluttering in his heart, a fluttering that he had never experienced before, but one that made him realise that he wasn’t as cold and shut off as he believed. 

It had been a little over two months since that day in the alley but Hermione Jean Granger had not managed to vanquish the thoughts of the mystery stranger who had freed her from where she had been trapped. She was loathed to admit it, but wanted to see her mysterious stranger again. Primarily to thank him, but also because there was a spark there that she wanted to know more about. It had felt as if there were a thousand fireflies within her heart, each starting to flutter and dance as he had spoken to her. The gentle cadence of his voice had seemed so contrasting to the way that he moved, but it was soothing at the same time. 

He was an enigma. And she knew that he was going to disturb her thoughts even when she had only met him once. It was made worse by the fact that the only clue she had to who he was aside from his first name, or at least that was what she assumed it was, was the logo on the gun case that he carried. It wasn’t a logo that she could find for a British company, and that meant that it had to mean something. She just hadn’t figured it out yet. 

But she was determined that she would, and when she did, well, she wasn’t sure what she would do, but she was pretty certain that it would involve some sort of travel to actually face her mysterious stranger. She just knew that she had to do something to find out who he was, but preferably without her best friends finding out. She knew that Harry and Ginny would be supportive, hell, Harry would probably help with researching the muggle way, but Ron had been going on about how she should just leave it. 

However, her desire to find out about him was what brought her to the public library in New York. She had apparated there, with the idea that it would be the best place for her to find out information about her mysterious stranger. His voice had definitely been American, although he hadn’t given away where in America he was from, so with that information and the confirmation that the logo on the gun case was not of British origin, it was apparent that America was the place to go, and the public library in New York was massive. Or at least that is what her muggle friends had told her. 

It was early in the morning, but she could completely understand why New York City was referred to as the City That Never Sleeps. And she was surprisingly glad of that as she walked down a busy New York street in search of coffee and caught sight of a man who looked extremely similar to her mysterious stranger. Similar enough that instead of heading into the coffee shop on her right she kept walking, following after him in the hope of catching a glimpse at his face and confirming that it was him. 

As she followed him, she couldn’t help but study him, the way he walked so that no one would notice him. But she also noticed that there was a confidence there as well, as if he knew that he could handle anything that was thrown at him. There was a bit of swagger to his gait as he turned the corner off of the street that Hermione was following. But all that did was intrigue the English witch. She hadn’t seen much of how her mysterious stranger had moved during their short meeting in London, but from what she could recall, there was a similarity between the men. 

That was the thoughts that were flowing through her mind, winding and weaving together as she tried to conclude whether or not the two men were one in the same. She was so wrapped up in those thoughts that as she turned down the same side street that he man had, she didn’t realise that she was going to walk straight into him until she already had. And with a thud, she bounced off of him, stumbling backwards, just nearly avoiding making contact with the concrete ground. But he stood there, unmoving like a piece of historic art. Unmoving as if he was a perfect statue. 

“You really shouldn’t follow strangers in New York,” the man said, and with his drawl, she realised exactly who he was. He was her mysterious stranger, but he was different this time around. She could see it, clear as day, the last time he had been slow breaths and deliberate actions. This time, there was an excitement sparking its way through his eyes. It was hidden from most but she could see it, like a never end flame. 

“My apologies. I wanted to find a handsome stranger who saved me back home in London,” Hermione said as she allowed him to steady her as she wobbled slightly from both the knock but also the surprise of actually finding him. She had wanted to find him, but she had never thought about what she would do when she did. She had figured that she would find out who he was, have some time to think about it, and then possibly see him. But it was just Merlin’s law that it didn’t go to her plan. 

“Oh, and is that so? Any particular reason a beautiful lady like yourself wanted to find this stranger?” His response was not what she had expected. She had expected him to laugh it off and tell her to walk away. She had expected some form of aggression, but there was a softness, a sense of being carefree that piqued her interest. 

“I wanted to find my handsome, and mysterious, stranger to thank him, but moreover, I wanted to ask him to dinner. So, my stranger, would you like to have dinner with me?” Hermione asked the question with a confidence that only came when she thought about how she had grown in her years at Hogwarts. It was the confidence that she always had when she had researched everything. But he was the one causing her confidence, he was her reason, not research and knowledge and cleverness. 

“I think that can happen.”

It had been hellish. Four days of complete and utter hell. Everything that had happened with Loki, it had all been hell. He had hated it all, that feeling of being so far out of control. Having someone force their way through every part of him, through his head, digging for everything, that feeling was just far too much for him to handle. 

Clint had always been a private person, there were very few people who he would allow into the inner sanctum of his personal life. Especially given the fact that he lived a life that was so full of secrets in his profession, it had just made sense that he kept his personal life a secret as well. His relationship with one Hermione Granger was only one such secret that he kept. He loved her, he would never deny that, but he wasn’t willing to let anyone find out about her secrets. 

He didn’t have much in the way of a family, but the family that he did have, he would do everything possible to protect them. But he didn't know how to protect them from this. He didn't know how to protect her from this. 

He’d felt trapped before, and whenever that happened, it was normally Coulson or Hermione who would pull him out of it. Coulson by giving him a hard hit upside the head, and Hermione, by letting him lie in her arms, and just be whilst she listened to everything that he told her. But how was he meant to tell her that he was trapped under ice. But that ice was too thick to be melted by her warmth. 

And that was why he was here, that was why he was sitting on the roof of the apartment building opposite the one that they lived in. He could be inside, he could be watching her read whilst she had her knitting needles charmed to knit a scarf, or a hat, or any number of knitwear items. He wanted to be in there, he wanted to be held in her arms, but the ice that flooded his body as an after effect of Loki’s mind control was too much for him to fight at that moment. 

He knew that he was being ridiculous, or at least that's what she would tell him. Somehow over the course of their relationship, Hermione had convinced that he wasn’t as dangerous as he thought he was. She had convinced him that he did bad things for all of the right reasons. But whenever he thought he could end up hurting her, all he could think of was the day that they met, and how scared she had been. And he never wanted to see her look at him like that again. 

So even though it had been nearly a week since he had last properly slept, and over a month since he had been home, he couldn’t bring himself to step through the threshold to his home. He felt like he was drowning under the pressure of what Loki had subjected him to. It was like he was trapped, drowning in the water, with a layer of ice over the top. 

Hermione glanced out of her window and upto to the roof of the building opposite. It had been nearly thirty-six hours that her fiance had sat up there. She knew that he could sit up there for days and he would never falter, it was what he was trained to do. She could practice magic, she could cast spells, she could conjure items, but it was nothing compared to what Clint could do just through his training. She could never save someone just by being able to read a situation. She could never do anything like that. 

She had spoken to Natasha, her fiance’s best friend, and she knew exactly why Clint was hiding. She could only sympathise with how he was feeling, she had been tortured before, something that she would never talk about, but what happened to Clint was far worse. And that was something that he had to work through on his own. 

However, she didn’t think that she could leave him sitting there for much longer. He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t slept either. But she hadn’t as well. She had sat up the whole night waiting for him to walk through the door. She knew that he wouldn't be the same, that he would be hurting and would probably push her away. But she wanted him with her. She wanted him in their home where she knew he was going to be okay. 

And that is why she broke the golden rule. They had set the rule that when everything went to hell, and they couldn’t imagine how anything could get worse, they would leave the other alone until they were ready. But she couldn’t, not anymore. So she apparated from their apartment, their home, to the rooftop where Clint was sitting. 

She appeared about six feet behind him. It was close enough to be dangerous, but it also made her smile. She knew that he had heard her, but all that happened was his shoulders released some of the tension that he was carrying. And it was then that she knew that it was safe for her to move, to make her way to sit next to him. She knew it was a bad idea to touch him, but sitting next to him was going to have to be enough. 

“I don’t want you to be scared.” 

And that one sentence from Clint reminded her of exactly who he was. He was her guardian angel, her knight in shining armour, her defender. But more than that, he was the man who wanted nothing more than for the world to be free from the horrors of life. 

“I can never be scared of you, love.” 

She could only hope that her reassurance did something to relax him, but given how he shifted slightly, only a little bit, closer to her. She figured that it had worked. That he was going to be okay. Eventually. 

But for now they were going to sit there. They would stay side by side until eventually Clint would relax into her side and they would finally be able to talk about what had happened. 

  
  



End file.
